In preparing for the Barcelona to Bristol trip I did several rides on the Thanet, one of which took me along the Bristol to Bath Cycle Path just a few weeks ago. When I arrived at Bitton, where there’s a small steam railway and cafe, I met a bloke selling a couple of old bicycle parts from his van in the car park. He said that mine was the second Thanet he’d seen that week, and that the first one was a tandem.

When I got home, I checked Hilary Stone’s book and, sure enough, two Thanet tandems were made in the early 1950s, one for the firm’s owner, Les Cassell, and another that was sold to a “deaf and dumb man” in Bristol. I called Hilary and told him the story. He doesn’t know the whereabouts of either Thanet tandem, or indeed if both of them still exist. Clearly, one still does. Does anyone know of its whereabouts?